Flora Klickmann (1867-1958)

Although Flora is probably best known for her "Flower Patch" series, I first
became interested in her when I came across "The Home Art Crochet Book" on
eBay while searching for older crochet books.

The book is full of patterns for lace borders and filet crochet. Imagine
my delight when I discovered that this was only the first in a series of
fascinating books. The designs in all of these books are elegant
and intricate. They can be adapted to today's lifestyle which makes each
design timeless and well worth the time and effort to produce a crocheted
masterpiece.

Emily Flora Klickmann, to give her her full name, was born in London on
January 26th, 1867. She had graduated in music when she was a girl and wanted
to be a concert pianist, but a due to a heart weakness was advised to give
up her plans. She began work as a music teacher at the age of 21.
A move into music journalism started her long career as a journalist,
author and editor.

In 1908, she was appointed editor of the Girl's
Own Paper (later known as The Girl's Own Paper And Woman's Magazine) -
a highly successful periodical aimed at girls and young women. Flora
replaced Mr. Charles Peters, who had been the editor since the first issue.
She was very innovative and introduced new themes such as careers advice for
girls, advice on style and dress, photography competitions and crafts, all
of which proved popular with the readers.

In 1912 she suffered a breakdown through overwork and stress. While
remaining as editor, she spent a period of convalescence at a rented cottage
close to Brockweir
in the Wye Valley, an area in which her grandparents had lived.
But no improvement meant that she was taken to London, where she was operated
on in 1913, entirely successfully. However she was starting to spend
a lot more time at her retreat, and by the late 1920's she was essentially
a long distance editor.

She married Ebenezer Henderson Smith, in 1913. He was one of the executives
at the Religious
Tract Society who had been instrumental in getting the 'The Girls Own
Paper' up and running. Her married name was Emily Flora Henderson Smith.
Although she had lived mainly in South London, Flora had rented cottages in
Brockweir over the years. As a wedding present, Ebenezer purchased
'Sylvan View', a house in Brockweir.

In 1916 she published the first of a series of books of written sketches
of life in her country cottage at Brockweir based on articles which she
had originally written for the Girl's Own Paper. In later years the
stories grew to involve her household and the local people, combining nature
description, anecdote, autobiography, religion, and humour. In all,
seven Flower Patch books were published, over 32 years.

She also published novels, advice books, children's stories and non-fiction
on many topics including gardening, cooking, and needlework techniques,
some of which have been republished in recent years.

The "Home Art" series of books were published while she was editor
for "The Girl's Own Paper and Women's Magazine" and "Stitchery",
a quarterly paper published as a supplement to The Girl's Own Paper".
This was consequently published in annuals containing the four issues.

Ebenezer died in 1937 and was buried in the Moravian
Churchyard in Brockweir. Flora joined him on November 20th 1958,
aged 91.

The "Home Art" series

The Home Art Crochet Book was published 1912 in London by "The Girl's Own
Paper and Women's Magazine". The front over says, "Containing entirely
new designs for Lingerie, Edgings & Insertions, Borders for Tray Cloths
& D'oileys, Deep Laces for Table Cloths & Valences, Motifs for Inlet
Work & Irish Lace." For anybody interested in thread crochet, this
book is full of delightful inspiration.

The first section is for the "Average Worker". However, the average
worker at that time was far more accomplished than the average worker now.
The instructions for the "Rosette Edging" look very complicated in
my view.

We have to remember that girls were taught to be accomplished needle workers
at a young age.

Today’s crocheter would think that half of the patterns are missing - as
can be seen from this section of filet pattern for a Boat.

This is how patterns were written then, in a way which reflected the way
girls were taught. Nowadays, we expect every single action to be
explicitly detailed for us. In Victorian times, women instinctively
knew how to turn at the end of the row and how many chain were needed to
turn.

The second book in the series is "The Home Art Book Of Fancy Stitchery",
also published in 1912 and "With new ideas for applying Crochet to lingerie
and napery bead-work and fancy stitches for dress trimmings, Feather-stitching,
Smocking, Hardangerwork, Darned Filet Crochet, Knitting, Macrame Work, Darned
net, Cross-stitch, Irish Crochet, Embroidery on Flannel."

Although this book is not dedicated to crochet, there are some more fascinating
patterns in there. This "Venetian Crochet Centre" is one of my favourites.
It is made with Cleavers "Grass-bleached" Linen and Hicks, Bullick and Co’s
No.42 Irish Lace Thread, with a No. 6 crochet hook. There are detailed
instructions for the centre motif and those around the edge.

In the third book of the series "The Craft of the Crochet Hook", we are
actually given some lessons in both Irish crochet and "Plain Crochet".
She suggests a "rather course hook - No. 4 will suit" for these lessons.
I rather think he idea of "course" is some what different from ours.
The "No. 4" which she suggests is about a 1.00mm in metric.

This book is the best yet for intricate patterns. The "Flower basket" is
a pretty motif which has a variety of uses. The Irish Crochet motifs
are among the best I have ever seen.

Ten more books followed between 1912 and 1921, although only another four
are dedicated to crochet. They all give a unique insight into the
craft work of the era.

The series is listed below in the order in which they were published.
The ones I have managed to collect have accompanying scans of the front covers
in colour. The monochrome pictures are taken from adverts within these books.

All of the pictures used are scans from the original books which are now
in the public domain. If you are interested in seeing more, or brave
enough to attempt some of these patterns, a few of the books can be downloaded
from the Antique Pattern Library.

This book was reprinted by Pastime Publications as "Crocheted Edgings,
Insertions & Fancywork; Crocheters' Historical Pattern Series Vol
3". These pdf scans are from the original. Dozens of
laces of all difficulty levels, and many of them are unusual and beautiful.
Also filet charts, Irish Crochet motifs, and patterns for crocheting with
manufactured braids and rickracks.

Preface: War is a hard, stern teacher, and its lessons are bitter in
the learning; yet some of its teaching we badly needed - and not the least
important of its many lessons is the one it inculcated on the criminality
of waste.